One of the most distinctive features of American political parties during the
twentieth century was the extent to which party activities had come to be
regulated by law. Two aspects of this are especially important in relation
to the introduction of the direct primary. In many states more than a decade
of extensive regulation of the nomination process usually preceded the
introduction of the direct primary. Often the direct primary was the culmination of repeated attempts by legislators to provide for nomination procedures that worked better than the existing ones. Second, in making direct
primaries mandatory, state governments turned a process that, unquestionably, had been that of a private association into something resembling
a public election; in doing so, inevitably they generated controversies about
the nature of American political parties. Were they still private associations,
or were they public agencies? This chapter examines how party nomination procedures became subjected to legal control, and why such legal
control was necessary in the United States.

1. Candidate Selection in the Nineteenth Century

From the days of the Jacksonian democracy onward, most counties in the
United States employed a system of nominating candidates that political
scientists later would describe as one involving caucuses and conventions.
That is, it was a two-stage process. At the first stage party supporters
would select delegates to represent them at a convention — a county
convention for county level offices, or a state convention for state level
offices, and so on. In its standard form this type of nominating system
permitted delegates to a convention to vote for whom they wanted when
they attended it; they were bound neither by party rules nor law to do
otherwise. The constraints on them were solely those of peer group opinion
— what those who had selected them might think should they vote in
ways contrary to any indications they had given earlier. In theory, at least,

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